‘Mister Yes’ who helped put an end to the Cold War

ARCHIVE PHOTO: USSR Foreign Minister and a member of the Political Bureau of the CPSU Central Committee Eduard Shevardnadze and General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Mikhail Gorbachev (R) holding a news conference for journalists covering a summit in Washington, D.C on
12 january 1987 (RIA Novosti) / RIA Novosti

Eduard A. Shevardnadze, Mikhail Gorbachev’s close ally and associate in the implementation of perestroika and “new thinking”, former USSR Foreign Minister and President of Georgia died on Monday, 7 July 2014.

He was 86.

Mr. Shevardnadze had spent his working life as a Communist party
functionary including posts as the head of the Georgian KGB and
up to the very top position as the leader of the Georgian
Communist Party.

In 1985 Gorbachev offered him to lead the Foreign Ministry of the
USSR despite the fact that Shevardnadze had no experience in
diplomacy, other than hosting foreign delegations in his
republic.

In his memoirs Gorbachev explained that in the early days of
perestroika he needed “experienced people” who
understood his thinking and an undeniable will to reform the
Soviet Union. Shevardnadze was granted “a free hand in
foreign policy” by bringing in a close friend and associate.

Together, the two leaders revolutionized Soviet foreign policy.
They withdrew Soviet troops from Afghanistan; negotiated treaties
on reduction of medium-range and strategic nuclear arms; withdrew
military forces from Central and Eastern Europe and the
USSR-China border; catalyzed the fall of the Berlin Wall and the
reunification of Germany; and accepted protection of human rights
as part of West-East negotiations.

I recall that during the Helsinki verification meetings in Vienna
Shevardnadze walked to a group of protesting Soviet dissidents in
exile and warmly embraced a few of them saying that from now on
the situation with human rights in the USSR will be different,
and it was. Practically all of them have been released from
prison or domestic exile like the most famous of them Academician
and Nobel Peace Laureate Dr. Andrei Sakharov.

Mr. Shevardnadze was an architect, spokesman and negotiator for
the new policy, and the white-haired visage that earned him the
nickname “Silver Fox” and “Mister Yes”
(contrary to his predecessor Mr. Gromyko – “Mr. No”)
when he was propelled to the world politics stage from 1985 to
1991.

One of his last acts in the job was to persuade Russia’s
leadership to support a United Nations resolution on Nov. 29,
1990, giving the United States and its allies the green light to
eject Iraq from Kuwait. Hard-liners were offended, blaming
Shevardnadze’s close relationship with Secretary of State Baker.

Part of his success was forging relationships with Secretaries of
State George P. Shultz and James A. Baker III, who became
proponents of reconciliation in administrations that were
intensely anti-Soviet. Just as difficult, he helped convince
Soviet hard-liners that it was time for rapprochement with the
United States.

Mr. Shevardnadze’s revisionist thinking outpaced that of Mr.
Gorbachev. “He thought he was refining socialism while I was
no longer a socialist,” Mr. Shevardnadze told The New York
Times Magazine in 1993.

Mr. Shevardnadze became worried that Mr. Gorbachev was falling
under the influence of the hard-liners. He ultimately shocked his
boss by resigning on Dec. 20, 1990, with a warning that
“dictatorship is coming”.

Three months later, Mr. Shevardnadze agreed to head the council
governing Georgia after a coup there. He was elected president in
1995 and helped hold his country together, establish democratic
reforms and stabilize the economy. He survived assassination
attempts in 1992, 1995 and 1998, without suffering serious
injury. His second term, won in 2000, was a disaster, as civil
clashes proliferated, the economy deteriorated and corruption
flourished.

Mr. Shevardnadze was forced to step down in 2003 as a result of
the US backed “Rose Revolution” but his American friends
were able to protect him by telling his successor to leave
Shevardnadze in peace.

In a statement on Monday, Mr. Baker said Mr. Shevardnadze would
“have an honored place in history, because he and Mikhail
Gorbachev refused to support the use of force to keep the Soviet
empire together… Many millions of people in Central and Eastern
Europe and around the world owe their freedom to them”.

Many Russians see things differently and these days neither
Gorbachev nor Shevardnadze are held in the high esteem in Russia.

However, only history can judge the rights and wrongs, and for
now everyone is entitled to their opinions. One thing for sure,
this man was able to make some extraordinary changes both in the
tiny Georgia and in the whole Soviet empire.